Doña Candy's Xmajkun Recipe
If you’ve ever been to one of our SAY student Welcome Dinners at Candy’s Restaurant, you will have sampled some of Doña Candy’s delights. Her repertoire of recipes is extensive and we had the opportunity to learn how to make a local, Maya specialty called Xmajkun /sh mah koon/. Xmajkun is an authentic, delicious, homemade version of the well-known cochinita dish that many of us love to buy for breakfast on Sundays.
It is most commonly made with pork or chicken and it’s prepared in a banana leaf. Let us know if you try it!
Ingredients:
6 bitter oranges,
a handful of recado rojo – sometimes known as achiote paste this is a popular blend of spices strongly associated with Mexican and Belizean cuisines, especially from the Yucatán Peninsula and Oaxaca.
a spoon of recado blanco – another paste of blended spices; usually oregano, garlic and Tabasco pepper
3 kilos of pork on the bone – Doña Candy includes pigs feet too but you can leave this bit out if you prefer
2 large banana leaves – cleaned thoroughly
water
2 medium white onions
2 sweet oranges
salt to taste
Method:
Squeeze the juice of 6 bitter oranges into a bowl. Then add the handful of recado rojo and the spoonful of recado blanco. Mix well.
Place one of the banana leaves on the bottom of a large pan and then place the meat on top.
Drizzle the sauce (sour orange juice with recado rojo and blanco) over the meat using a sieve to strain it.
Cover with your other banana leaf
For 15 minutes, put on a low heat, so that the meat absorbs the flavor, moving the meat frequently so that it doesn’t burn.
Add water through the same sieve to get out all the remaining recado left in it up to the level of the meat being careful not to disturb the meat and banana leaves too much.
Cover with a lid and cook on a medium heat for an hour.
While cooking, thinly slice 2 onions and place in a bowl, add the juice of the 2 sweet oranges and add a teaspoon of salt (or more to taste).
Once the meat is cooked through and nice and tender serve in bowls and top with your onions.
Serve with fresh, warm tortillas. Yum!
Doña Candy says the difference between Cochinita and Xmajkún is that Cochinita is cooked under the ground while Xmajkún is cooking on a stove, so slightly easier for you to recreate at home!
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The best way to experience the Mexican lifestyle is in person, with a Na’atik Immersion experience. Not only do you live with a local Mexican-Maya family, sharing home-cooked meals and free time, but also receive expert instruction in your chosen language at our school. Best of all, every immersion experience helps fund our subsidized and free local education program, helping local students to access opportunities and make their own futures.